Belhaven 14/12/2009

Today I managed to join up with Euan and Greg who were heading into Coire an t'Sneachda onto Fiacaill Buttress. The weather was miserable and rained steadily throughout the day. The ground remained rock hard however, with some rime remaining on the steeper routes. We headed up Fiacaill Couloir and did Belhaven which provided some of the best mixed climbing I have done. The first pitch had a good step up, to get out of the couloir, followed by the main corner which gave a solid 40m of continually interesting climbing; a great balance of torquey crack climbing and delicate face climbing with the crux being a delicate and strenuous series of moves over a bulge: using a mixture of camming and thin ice blobs, which gave an amazing sequence. The protection was spaced and Greg put in a great effort to lead the sustained pitch well. The route really was fantastic, even though we were all soaked! Hopefully the weather will cool down as forecast and the conditions will improve further. I hope to get out more before Christmas and New Year before I will have to get my head down and do some studying, so far the winter has been amazing though with loads of great routes getting ticked!